Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Fifty-Two

Niall/Liam

They hadn't talked about things any further than that. Liam was handling all of the phone calls and meetings made necessary by the lack of concrete answer he'd given his team, and Niall was trying not walk in at a point where they would then be forced to finish that conversation. They'd reached an end of the conversation, but not the end, and the idea of what could actually happen hadn't really been discussed.

They spent New Years together, watching the celebrations both on the TV and from Liam's balcony, passing on the opportunity to join Harry and Louis and find a party to go to, and instead watching the fireworks with Chloe before carrying her to bed from her spot on the sofa where she'd given in, collapsing into bed together, but still not talking any further about the picture or making a decision about what it could mean.

Chloe went back to school, and they went back to the old routine of Liam joining them for dinner and sometimes staying there, sometimes going back to his place. Liam was swamped in work related stuff, organising the boys and attending meetings and still arguing over set lists and rehearsals. Niall went back to work, his holiday all used up, working double shifts as he had before, and depending on Jessica to collect Chloe from school. Liam threw himself back into work, paying attention to tour arrangements, organising the boys, and convincing himself that everything was fine. Everything was fine and everything wasn't, but neither one of them seemed to want to talk.

For Liam, talking would finalise any plans between them, plans made in the abstract, and it would mean taking Niall in for a meeting with his team, a meeting that he was sure would end in contracts and scaring Niall away. For Niall, talking would mean facing the consequences of Liam's fame, facing up to challenges he liked to pretend didn't apply to them, facing up to people who wanted the truth, truths about Chloe, and him, and about what he wanted.

So yeah, they weren't talking, and everything was fine, and everything wasn't, and time was slowly tick-tick-ticking away. They were both aware that the month-and-a-half there had been until tour was slipping through their fingers until there were three weeks. Three fucking weeks and then Liam would be away.

If he was being totally honest, that was another one of the reasons why Niall hadn't asked Liam what his team had decided, what was going to happen and what people were eventually going to know. There was so little time that he didn't want to waste it with a conversation that could have unforeseen consequences. The bury-your-head-in-the-sand technique both him and Liam were going for left them both wanting to talk but actually not, and would only work for so long.

It stopped working on a Saturday, three weeks before Liam was supposed to leave for tour or rehearsals or something. Niall wasn't sure, and was walking around Liam on eggshells, not wanting to say something that would be the catalyst for the conversation they were ultimately avoiding. Niall was working, pulling a double shift on a Saturday so that he'd later be able to attend the coffee morning Chloe's class would be hosting, and Liam had wanted to spend the day with Chloe, taking her to her swimming lesson and then to the park with Loki for the afternoon.

Halfway through the tail end of his second shift, Niall got a phone call from Liam, taking the risk that his boss would catch him and answering it to be met with a frantic sounding Liam, who skipped over pleasantries and immediately started talking. "Ni? Is Chloe allergic to anything? Plasters, for instance? I asked her, but she didn't know for certain. I didn't think she was, but you never know and I wanted to be sure..."

"Umm...no. She's not. Plasters are fine. Why? Is she okay? What- What happened?" Clutching his phone tightly, Niall glanced around checking that his boss wasn't around and that there weren't any customers before he ducked into the back room, imagining the worst as he asked again. "What happened? Is she okay? Li? An answer, any answer, would nice."